Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play an important role in the economy and use a significant amount of chemicals in their manufacturing processes, little support has been offered to improve the processes they use for chemicals management. In this series of two papers, we propose a design support framework for strategic chemicals management in SMEs, and the supporting mechanisms in the framework have been informatized as a software tool developed on the basis of a case study of metal cleaning. In Part 1, the rationale of design support for chemicals management in SMEs based on process analysis by life-cycle assessment and risk assessment is conceptually analyzed and presented as a design support framework. Supporting mechanisms required for process analysis are revealed through the analysis of existing activities toward process improvement aimed at controlling volatile organic compounds in industry. A process model for data collection and the generation of alternative candidates for risk reduction has been designed for the open-system processes employed by many SMEs.